Thank you, something good and holy to think about. I will watch this tonight.

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I always thought it odd that both her Novice Mistress Mother Maria Teresa Vausou or her Superior Mother Josefina Imbert could accept that Bernadette had seen Our Lady or that they were in fact dealing with a saint. an odd couple.

I always thought it odd that both her Novice Mistress Mother Maria Teresa Vausou or her Superior Mother Josefina Imbert could accept that Bernadette had seen Our Lady or that they were in fact dealing with a saint. an odd couple.

There is this Dominican priest that preaches a spiritual 12 step program and has done so for Mother Teresa's Sisters in India many times. He is hilarious and quite honest in his presentations. His mother was mentally ill and his father, an alcoholic. One of my favorite parts of his retreats was on suffering. He always chose to re-enact the scene from the Song of Bernadette with poor Bernadette being confronted by her Novice Mistress. "Suffering? You don't know suffering!" This was how the poor dear grew in holiness.

I later had the opportunity to visit Lourdes and explore every nook and cranny in that holy place. So this video is very much appreciated!

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.

There is this Dominican priest that preaches a spiritual 12 step program and has done so for Mother Teresa's Sisters in India many times. He is hilarious and quite honest in his presentations. His mother was mentally ill and his father, an alcoholic. One of my favorite parts of his retreats was on suffering. He always chose to re-enact the scene from the Song of Bernadette with poor Bernadette being confronted by her Novice Mistress. "Suffering? You don't know suffering!" This was how the poor dear grew in holiness.

I later had the opportunity to visit Lourdes and explore every nook and cranny in that holy place. So this video is very much appreciated!

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There used to be a young monk who also did a skit on the Novice Mistress and it always has me in sitches.

I think if you were to do a survey of al lthe visionaries who saw Our Lady downt eh centuries you might find they had a lot in common. They tended to be very young and very poor. The bottom of the heap so to speak. But the biggest thing of all is that they tened to be very,very humble indeed. Not only did others think very little of them but they tended to think very little of themselves too. So if you were to ask them ,

'Why did Our Lady choose to appear to you?'

..the answer they would tend to give is,

'I have no idea there are a billion people better than me she could have appeared to'

But the kernel of their answer is they really beleived this , they believed they were totally unworthy. This kind of makes them rain proof in the ways of pride. If on the other hand thay had even a little bit of pride they would appropriate the whole appartion ot themselves. So Our Lady was building on a foundation of rock solid humility here.

Some other people who look at these things from an other angle might say,

But they answer their own question, the reason that Our Lady did not appear to them is that they would have appropriated the whole buisness to themselves and claimed ownership to themselves, Their pride would ahve multiplied a thousand fold and they would have ended up burning in hell. So Our Lady would not have been doing them any favours. Quite the contrary.

There are few things more fearsome than to meet someone in a postion of immense spiritual pride. Someone who has the reputation of being a saint and believing this themselves. It is terrifying really.

There was never much chance of this with St Bernadette. She was bullet proof, really. What a wonderful woman.

The smae thing with St Catherine Laboure . THey mostly had her in the convent feeding the chickens and washing the dishes at the complete bttom of the pile, like Bernadette. But the thing is they were very happy with this. Like I say bullet proof to pride.

I read a true story I read years ago about something that happened in Holland. A very famus Bishp visited a large convent there. The Bishop was very famous as an intellectual and writer and through his wonderful apostolic work had converted many hundreds to the Faith ( kind of the Archbishop Fulton Sheen of his day there) . In his vist to the Convent he happened to meet an old nun who did very heavy work out in the stables at teh back of the convent. As a result of her work she was kind of dirty and smelly and dishevlled. ALthough the Mother Superior had introduced her to every toehr sister in the convent he had never introduced the holy Bishop to this one, perhaps because she was a little ashmed of the old woman.

The Bishop wa curious though about this hidden nun and took time to listne to her story. The old lady explained that God had asked for a sacrifice. God wanted her to take the lowest place and to be thought mean and contemptable by al laround her all through life. God explained this was because he wanted to cal la soul back to His heart and work great work in the Church by means of this. As the saintly nun spoke the Bishop had a sudden insight that it was he she was speaking about and it was thanks to her his Apostolic work had been so successful . Though he was given the credit.

The Bishop never told the old saint this as he sensed that God did not wish this. So the old nun died never known what she had accomplsihed by her humilty.

I think very often souls go through their lives poor, unknown and unappreicted. God crushes the grapes so to speak.

My mother brought up ten chidlren often in poverty and in times of great difficulty and distress, she was oftne very ill form a heart condition she had since her early forties.

But she surpised me when she dying to mention that when she younger she could ahve had a very sucessful career herself but gave it up to raise her family. This surprised me because I never could have imagined for a second her as a career woman as she was so perfect a wife and mother. But I think at the time of death the devil is allowed to come close and make his final temptations. So for my mother it was to tmept her to regret the course her life, through her own choice had taken. We shoudl be aware of this for when our own timecomes.

But how many Cathoic women and men make similiar choices of taking the lower place at the table in order to raise a fmaily? They do this and do not think twice about it.

I remember once saying to my mother how grateful I should be to her for all she had done for em . To which she replied.

'Why should you be grateful? No one forced me to have children. One I made this choice I had the reponsibility of raising you'

I think this is the gold standard of humility. Not to give and not to count the cost. But to give and not even to recognise that there is a cost, or a debt owed.

I read a true story I read years ago about something that happened in Holland. A very famus Bishp visited a large convent there. The Bishop was very famous as an intellectual and writer and through his wonderful apostolic work had converted many hundreds to the Faith ( kind of the Archbishop Fulton Sheen of his day there) . In his vist to the Convent he happened to meet an old nun who did very heavy work out in the stables at teh back of the convent. As a result of her work she was kind of dirty and smelly and dishevlled. ALthough the Mother Superior had introduced her to every toehr sister in the convent he had never introduced the holy Bishop to this one, perhaps because she was a little ashmed of the old woman.

The Bishop wa curious though about this hidden nun and took time to listne to her story. The old lady explained that God had asked for a sacrifice. God wanted her to take the lowest place and to be thought mean and contemptable by al laround her all through life. God explained this was because he wanted to cal la soul back to His heart and work great work in the Church by means of this. As the saintly nun spoke the Bishop had a sudden insight that it was he she was speaking about and it was thanks to her his Apostolic work had been so successful . Though he was given the credit.

The Bishop never told the old saint this as he sensed that God did not wish this. So the old nun died never known what she had accomplsihed by her humilty.

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Wonderful story! Only when we enter heaven will we truly understand the ways of God and how our prayers and sacrifices impacted the world. This thought makes me happy.

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.

That video was a little scary in that if it took so much humility and suffering for St. Bernadette to get to Heaven, the rest of us will be fortunate to spend a very long time in Purgatory.

I was struck by the exchange between the Bishop and Sr. Marie Bernard concerning Melanie Calvet. Do you think that was included to cast doubts on the authenticity of La Salette or to make a point that being chosen to witness an apparition by Our Lady is no guarantee that the person will go on to live a holy life?

That video was a little scary in that if it took so much humility and suffering for St. Bernadette to get to Heaven, the rest of us will be fortunate to spend a very long time in Purgatory.

I was struck by the exchange between the Bishop and Sr. Marie Bernard concerning Melanie Calvet. Do you think that was included to cast doubts on the authenticity of La Salette or to make a point that being chosen to witness an apparition by Our Lady is no guarantee that the person will go on to live a holy life?

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The Feanch would probaly understand the reference to La Salette beter than we ever could, it is all mixed up.

Two great saints were involved in La Salette and Garabandla and in a similiar way.

The Cure of Ars, Patron Saint Of Parish priests supported La Salette enthusiatically. Then he met one of the visionaries, there was some kind of mix up over words and the Cure withdrew his support.

However things got sorted and he wnet back to supporting it all out again.

Padre Pio is supposed to have siad of Garabandal that it started wel lbut the devil got mixed up in it.

With Lourdes it was never so, plain sailing all the way. But I think some people remembering La Salette and the confusion might ahve wondered about Lourdes at the time.

Yet I don;t doubt that La Salette and Garabandal were true despite the confusion.

St Padre Pio and and St John Vianney had great mystical powers of discenrment and for reading souls if they had been false these great saints would have sniffed it. But it shows how powerful the devil acted to casue such great confusion even amongst great saints.